The DCO application for the Rampion 2 Offshore Wind Farm has been accepted for examination by the Planning Inspectorate. The application is for an offshore wind farm with an area up to approximately 196km2 comprising up to 90 wind turbines and associated foundations, inter-array cables connecting the turbines to up to three offshore substations, and export cables taking the power to shore at Climping.
The application includes all the onshore electrical infrastructure required to transmit the power to the final connection into the national electricity network at Bolney in Mid Sussex. This includes an underground onshore cable route approximately 38.8km long from the landfall at Climping to a new onshore substation at Oakendene, 2km east of Cowfold.
A full description of the Proposed Development is provided in the Environmental Statement, Volume 2, Chapter 4: The Proposed Development.
Please note the deadline of Monday 6 November 2023 for the Relevant Representations.
The offshore wind farm site is adjacent to and forming an extension to the west and south of the existing Rampion Offshore Wind Farm, a minimum of approximately 13km off the Sussex coast.
The Application form and accompanying documents including plans and maps, the Environmental Statement (ES) and Non-Technical Summary (NTS) can be viewed and downloaded free of charge on the Rampion 2 page on the Planning Inspectorate website.
There is a lot of information and documentation so to help navigate and find what you are looking for, please see our Guide to the Application, which sets out an index for all the documents we have submitted.
The Non-Technical Summary (NTS) can also be found here, along with the Onshore Work Plans and Offshore Work Plans.
The Examination process is expected to take six months, and a final decision on whether consent will be granted will be made by the Secretary of State for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero by early 2025.
A typical offshore wind farm will be made up of an array of offshore wind turbines that are fixed to the seabed. The wind turbines feed green power into offshore substations via underwater cables.
A typical offshore wind farm will be made up of an array of offshore wind turbines that are fixed to the seabed. The wind turbines feed green power into offshore substations via underwater cables.
Underwater export cables transmit the electricity to a landfall location where the offshore cables are jointed to the onshore cables. The cables can be drilled under a beach. From there, the cables can be run underground through to an onshore substation. The role of an onshore substation is to transform the electricity to flow at the correct voltage and frequency into the nation’s transmission system.
Underwater export cables transmit the electricity to a landfall location where the offshore cables are jointed to the onshore cables. The cables can be drilled under a beach. From there, the cables can be run underground through to an onshore substation. The role of an onshore substation is to transform the electricity to flow at the correct voltage and frequency into the nation’s transmission system.
The proposed Rampion 2 sits within a maximum design envelope that has been established for the purpose of assessing the maximum potential impacts of the project. These key statistics for Rampion 2 are taken from our DCO Application.
Rampion 2 will be located between 13km and 26km from the Sussex Coast in the English Channel – this is the same minimum distance from shore as Rampion.
We have assessed a maximum height of 325m tip height above Lowest Astronomical Tide (that’s up to 2.3 times the existing Rampion turbine height) and will have a 22m minimum air gap above Mean High Water Springs (MHWS).
It is hoped that Rampion 2 will be operational by the end of the decade. Until then, the advances in the technology to generate renewable electricity are predicted to be fast paced. Turbine designers aim to capture and convert as much of the wind’s power into electricity as possible. Greater blade ‘tip heights’ have been key to advances in technology to date. The power of offshore turbines has increased 5-fold in just 20 years. Our assessment of the project’s impacts looks at the maximum foreseeable impacts of the turbine types we might expect to be able to buy in the future.
By assessing maximum parameters for turbines, we have the flexibility to produce an optimal layout for them within this envelope. The turbines will be no taller than the maximum blade tip height that we assess and no closer to the shore than the existing turbines. In October 2022, the Rampion 2 Project Team reduced the maximum number of turbines down from 116 to 90. This was in response to feedback on visual effects and shipping from key stakeholders, including Natural England.
Rampion 2 will be able to power the equivalent of over 1million homes.
We submitted an application for a connection to National Grid, as the owner and operator of the UK’s electricity transmission system. Following their assessments they offered Rampion 2 a connection to the Bolney National Grid Substation. This existing substation can accommodate the large output of electricity that Rampion 2 could supply.
A new onshore substation 2km east of Cowfold is needed to transform the power to 400kV and control the electricity flow onto the national transmission system. Buried cables will then connect to the national grid electrical network via an extension to the National Grid Bolney substation in Twineham, required to connect the power so that it can be used by homes and businesses.
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